The source of all your problems in life

I have a blue book that I bring with me when I meditate or contemplate so that I can quickly jot down any thoughts or insights I have. The stuff that comes out (it almost feels involuntary) is often half baked and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it sometimes it captures the essence of something profound (at least for me anyway), so I wanted to start sharing them.

In terms of understanding the tone I guess it’s me addressing myself. I’ll continue to flesh these ideas out and properly articulate them with time, but yeah here we go:

"The source of every single one of your problems in life is you trying to get 1-up on the world. Trying to lay claim. Trying to be something that you’re not. Aspiring to something. Trying to meet expectations. The moment you can just let that fucking shit go, you’ll finally be happy and content.

I don’t think it will magically just happen though. It’s going to be a process of continual opening and closing. Of getting fucked, and then unfucking yourself. But as long as you remember the method for unfucking yourself, everything will be okay. It goes as follows:

The second you notice yourself being somebody you’re not, saying things that you know to be false, trying to meet any form of expectation or deadline, or experience writers block – what you need to do is get the fuck away from it, sit the fuck down all by yourself, and do nothing. (You can also listen to Alan Watts or music as well, that shit works wonders.)

Just sit there and do nothing. Let your mind wander, but don’t attach to anything. Just let yourself relax. Breathe. And just let yourself slowly calm down and regain perspective. Everything will fall back into place. You’ll begin to see clearly again.

Sitting there and doing nothing gets you back in touch with who you actually are – and this is important, because every single one of your problems in life comes from misidentification, or even just identification.

Identifying with your work, with your body, your emotions, your thoughts, all of that is misidentification – none of it is you. And identification is the root of all your suffering in life.

Just let it all go. Fuck it. Do whatever you feel like doing, and just let go of every single standard and expectation you set for yourself. And what you’ll find when you do that is you naturally gravitate towards the shit that is right for you, and you’ll be more productive, disciplined, creative, and energised than ever."

Your quality of life is 100% dependent on your perspective.

Nothing can phase you with the right perspective. Life is beautiful. And not in a trivial way. It’s absolutely fucking mind-blowing how beautiful it can be.

The problem with maintaining perspective is that it can feel like trying to dig a hole in water – with every heave of the shovel the water just floods back in.

And for that reason it’s easy to just drift through life unconscious, blown around like a leaf in the wind, and suffering because of it.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. The more you realign with it the longer it sticks, and eventually you can entrench it permanently.

So I’m going to keep writing about it and sharing my insights, and if you want to come on this journey with me drop your email below and check out the social media icons.